Like most schools in Silicon Valley, Homestead High School – alma mater to Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak -- offered students a plethora of elective classes to round out their mandatory curriculum. While autoshop and woodwork were both popular choices, one elective in particular sparked the creative interest in Cupertino’s kids, and that was John McCollum’s electronics class.

A retired navy pilot, McCollum was a serious, white shirt, white tie kind of teacher, with a passion for nurturing young talent.

“He didn’t go by the rules most people go by as teachers” said Steve Wozniak. Bill Fernandez, Wozniak’s younger neighbor and introductory link to Steve Jobs described McCollum as a “very straightforward” teacher who “insisted on a reasonable amount of discipline in the class.”

Writing his own course material, McCollum used a highly practical approach to electronics, expecting every child to use a slide ruler and be adept at scientific notation. He also ensured that oscilloscopes and other equipment peppered every workbench in the room, most of which originated from McCollum’s scavenger hunts across the valley.

“He had a great lab. The high school was very well equipped. Metal shop, wood shop, auto shop and a little TV studio,” Fernandez recalled, noting that McCollum kept his electronics Alladin’s cave locked from prying eyes and grabbing hands.

"I don’t know that I ever got to go in there but I knew he had a place where he kept all the parts that we used. Then there was an area in the corner of the room where there were large bins that were for surplus electronics. It was open season on that. We grabbed things and tore parts off to use them in our projects,” he said.

“I learned such valuable things in his class. The learning got through to me so well. It all made sense. Everything we learned about in that electronics class, we built,” said Wozniak, proudly, adding that it had been McCollum who first encouraged his love of practical jokes.

“We built things that you could really show off. We learned [things] that gave me a lot of insight into pranks I could play on people who didn’t know electronics,” he said.

Such pranks included building devices like a police siren, using circuitry, a battery and mini speaker or TV jammers, which were Fernandez’s specialty.

“I was really good at making them small and compact. A little cube shaped circuit that would plug on top of a single battery, with a little antenna. It could be used to jam out TV signals. When we were making TV jammers, I made the best one,” he said.

Indeed, so good was Fernandez’s jammer that when he left for Colorado state university, Wozniak took one with him, which he used to mercilessly terrorize fellow dorm members, making them contort into all kinds of shapes in front of the jammed TV before releasing the signal, fooling them into thinking their body position had cleared the picture.

“John McCollum loved jokes and he loved whenever students played jokes,” said Wozniak.

McCollum’s love of childish pranks, however, did not extend into a love of youth culture music, with another student from the early 1970’s noting the teacher’s visceral hatred for the synthesized sounds of musicians like Jimi Hendrix.

“We learned about distortion and how horrible the rock musicians music was with all the distortion. I remember that being discussed in class,” said Don Nelson, a 1972/3 alumni of McCollum’s course.“He was very focused on the technology, I don’t recall him being an entertainer. Some teachers would be more like entertainers, keep the kids laughing and tell all kinds of stories. He was all business,” said Nelson, describing McCollum as “a very conservative, older guy.”

Indeed, McCollum was a divisive figure, respected and revered by students, but disliked by many of his professional colleagues who found him somewhat overbearing.

“McCollum was such a talker that most of us would walk out of prep period meetings with the principal if he was in attendance,” recalled Larry Vosovic, a former English teacher at the school, noting that McCollum “would digress and dominate the discussion.”

McCollum’s single-mindedness, however, seemed to spring from the attitude that electronics was a way of life. So much so, in fact, that as a teacher he would go to great lengths to secure internships in local companies for his students.

“He would make connections with engineers and get permission for a student to go down to a company and actually do some work there and meet the engineers and see how it’s done,” said Wozniak, who himself had benefited from such an internship.

“I actually got to go down and program a computer,” he recalled excitedly, noting that in those days “computers were well ahead of rocket science.” The experience had a marked effect on Wozniak, who said “it’s really great when a teacher can find you extra education outside of school. Normally no teacher ever does that.”

Mr. McCollum was my Sophomore and Junior year electronics teacher at Homestead High in 1974-75. At the time we all heard him tell us "look around you Gentlemen - statistically, 4 out of 5 of you will not be graduating from 4-year college by age 30. I'll tell you that what industry needs is skilled electronics technicians - and you can complete a 2-year degree and get a good job earning 80% as much as an engineer, with half the time in college - much more likely to complete than a 4-year degree, and much less cost". So, after I went on to college, after studying accounting during my first full year, I decided I was personally more interested in electronics - so I took up a 2-year AS program in electronics at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, and while enrolled in my first classes there, interviewed and accepted a part time job at US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, working for an electronics engineer building prototype circuits in a lab. My main qualification that got me the job was what I had learned in Mr. McCollum's electronics classes. In 1979, before I graduated from Foothill, I was hired by Hewlett Packard in Santa Clara, and over the next 30 + years worked for five different divisions of HP, as well as Apple Computer, MicroModule Systems, Xicor, Linear Technology, Philips -Lumileds, and Western Digital. Along the way I also did contract full-time work for several other companies including Intel. I've had the good fortune to remain healthy, and live in an era where willingness to work hard, and continue to learn was well rewarded, and now I've retired at age 53, and can confidently say that I'll be able to live on the proceeds of my career for the rest of my life. ALL THIS BECAUSE OF MOTIVATION BY JOHN MC COLLUM. THANK YOU, JOHN. (!!!!!!!) THANK YOU.

I'm glad I stumbled across this nice article about Mr. McCollum. BTW-everyone always called him Mac. I was in his class from '74-'76 and he later became good friends with my parents through the ham radio club. That photograph really takes me back, I remember sitting in front of that giant slide rule! Those were special times. Since someone asked, Mac passed away many years ago, it seems like it must be 20 years by now.

Hi Sylvie, I attended Mr. McCollum's class in 1977 and 1978. I have a lot of fond memories of him and my time in his class. Back then he was in his 50's, so I think it is unlikely he is still alive at this late point, or at the least he's late into his dotage. The world needs more teachers like him, who went the extra mile to scavenge materials and share his passion for electronics with his students. I wasn't his best student, but I always respected him. We were sometimes able to distract him into telling stories, when he'd open up about his war experiences. One of my favorite quotes: Sub-chasing was endless hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. I'm not sure what the terror was about, since he was in a plane dropping sonobuoys on subs, but anyway the quote stuck! Thanks so much for writing about this man and the electronics class that spawned a generation of engineers. He made a difference. -- EC

Wow, awesome! So glad you found the article! I really tried to track John McCollum down (or his family) to show them the piece... but alas, after several people searches and lots of calls... I didn't manage. If you happen to know anyone from his family, please do send them the link... this guy was a true engineering hero and was a pleasure to write about!

John McCollum went way beyond being a teacher and mentor. One summer he called me at home to spend a few days driving from company to company collecting whatever they were willing to donate, Wiltronics, SOS (Space Ordinance Systems), HP, and the few IC manufacturers in the area (1970).
He was instrumental in me getting my first job (at Intel working on the 4004 with Fedrico Faggin) while finishing my senior year.
It wouldn't be until years later that I'd come realize what a positive influence he had on my life, and The Steves, and so many others.
I'm the guy in the picture (not smiling) between Steve Jobs and Scott Guthrie.

I had the same experience with a recently retired faculty member who taught a data structure's class in undergrad (final project: write a garbage collector in C).
I hated every moment with him, yet a few years later I realized just how beneficial his instruction was.
Someone said: "if you are really loving what you are doing you either aren't working hard enough or are very very lucky!"

I totally agree. Many if not most people who end up making a career in STEM fields can point to a mentor or teacher who inspired, nurtured and or "tortured" them with technical challenges!
You know, my true passion is really Medieval Military Engineering (which is another reason I find the present horrors in the Middle East heart breaking) so I'm glad your teacher was able to pursue his true passion.
My father and mother highlighted the job prospects of history majors so I did STEM in undergrad and grad school but some day....:)

My two meanest teachers turned out to be the most influential. I didn't appreciate them all that much at the time, but I do appreciate them a whole lot now. Tough love is something teenagers don't really understand until it's too late I guess